In this article, I want to share how the creation of the next book "Service Design Principles 201-300" starts and how this already shapes the book and my writing process.

Number of principles

In my notion database, I'm sorting the possible principles I could have for the next book.

So far, I have 70 early drafts that I can use for the next book of the Service Design principles series. Today I'm doing a bit of a clean up by categorising the different principles.

I plan to include more principles that are co-created with people from different backgrounds than mine. So this leaves a space for 30 principles that could come from community inspiration. But I'll have to see how much more time it takes to write service design principles in a co-creation way.

Timing

The goal for this year will be to get all the 100 principles ready in the first half of the year. Ready means I can send them to professional proofreaders and community reviewers. That's the big learning of last year. After having "ready" principles, the work is still very long, so I plan much more time for this part now.

The chapters 

There are two new categories of principles that might come out in this edition: principles about accessibility, goal setting, and impact measurement.

The categories that have so far the highest number of principles are "Human Touch" and "Workplace". Obviously, as these principles were written once our baby arrived in the world, the "Family" category will continue to have a few principles in this new book too.

Writing routine

I'm using this space of writing to reflect on how I'll restart my writing routine. If I want to be done in 6 months, and I remove one month for holidays and "shit happens" weeks, I have basically 20 weeks to get to 100 principles. 

So every week, I should finish 5 principles. That includes both the ones where I already have drafts and those that will come from community inspiration. 

Basically, one per day during the workweek. Seems pretty manageable. But I know that I'll have to do this in three steps:

1. Cut down the principle to a shorter format.

2. Rewriting it to be with short and actionable sentences.

3. Adding smart stuff and humor.

So this means every day I have to do one of this process for each principle in order to be ready in about 6 months.
Let's see how that goes.

Written on Wednesday 5th of January 2022 by Daniele Catalanotto